This painting represents one of the key events of the Indian Rebellion or Mutiny of 1857. The siege of Lucknow, which had lasted from July, was raised by Sir Colin Campbell, the new commander of the British armies, on 17 November. Sir James Outram and Sir Henry Havelock, who died only a week later, had brought reinforcements to bolster the small number of troops initially under siege. British public opinion was profoundly shocked by the scale of the mutiny and by the loss of life on both sides; the massacre of captured Europeans, and the indiscriminate killing of Indian soldiers and civilians by the British armies.

Simon, Jacob, The Art of the Picture Frame: Artists, Patrons and the Framing of Portraits in Britain, 1997 (accompanying the exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery from 8 November 1996 - 9 February 1997), p. 72

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